Product leaders are responsible for the success of the customer - the heart of the business itself. As user expectations increase, product leaders must raise the bar to levels that were once reserved for B2C.

On March 11, 2018, I sat down with three other B2B SaaS product leaders for the "Modern B2B Product Leadership" panel at SXSW Interactive. We discussed the challenges and ideal future state for enterprise software product management.

I’ve found that most conversations about “product” tend to focus on product management — the intersection of strategy, technology and UX. And that makes sense: Amazing software requires amazing product management.

But how can product leaders develop and inspire high-performing teams to solve important problems and make an impact on the business? How do we get closer to our customers in order to envision, co-create and prioritize the right experiences at the right time? And what’s the best way for us to approach each sprint, plan each next quarter and scale year to year?

Any company can excel at one or several dimensions of the customer experience. However, to be great at all twelve of these dimensions is very difficult.

The best brands in the world - and some of today's fastest growing startups - are all experience-driven companies. They are not engineering or design-driven companies; they are experience-driven companies. This means they are exceptional at each of the twelve dimensions; and they are also far ahead of their competitors in the minds of their customers.

The idea of paying people of influence for their time, their name, and their endorsement is not a bad idea. It's not a new idea either. Celebrity spokespeople were all huge fans of cigarettes in the 50's, for example. At least that's what Google shows when you search for 1950's celebrity endorsements. If they had had Vine back then, teenagers would've watched endless loops of Ronald Reagan raving about Chesterfield's "mildness." Who knew?

This is a post about influence and influencers. They come in all shapes and sizes. And they're not going to disappear anytime soon - no matter what Digiday and Gawker think.